Reader comments

Voilà. It has started.
next Putin will have people hard at work repairing the country’s infrastructures – roads, railways, etc… The Russian economy will pick up and soon, Latvia, Estonia, et al will be in the cross-hairs.

It’s almost like the Russians have picked up a book somewhere and are following it to the letter for some sort of “plan”. Where have we seen this happen before, I wonder.

I’m wondering – in 2009, the Lithuanian Seimas adopted the Law “On protection of children from homosexual propaganda.”
And all together silent, and after Lithuania – the country of the European Union.
The same law adopted Russia and all excited and had a tantrum. Although Russia is no relation to the EU has not.
Where is the hypocrisy?

What you state is not in fact correct. Lithuania does not have a good record on gay rights and has lots of bigots, attempting to pass discriminatory laws which fall foul of the European Charter, but the law you mention does not exist. Those that do, come nowhere near to the Russian antigay laws recently enacted either in effect or ferocity and Lithuania does have anti-discrimination laws which are enforced. They have a long way to go to realise gay equality however, but do not compare to Russia.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Lithuania

Bah, it is “formalist art”.. nothing but bourgeois posturing. This is not “for the people”, it does not reflect the “values of the people”. It is the insidious infection of the decadent Western world trying to pervert Mother Russia.

Where is Dmitri Schostakowitch when we need him… oh right, they censured him. Kabalevski, then.

Hmmm…Is a man wearing ‘women’s’ underwear any more absurd than a gender normative man wearing a tie, though? Kinda odd that they’d picture Putin bravely defying gender norms when he’s actually the exact opposite of someone who does that: i.e. he’s a gender paranoid male who feels the need to hide behind a hyper-masculine persona whilst persecuting LGBTQ people as a way of taking out his profound insecurities about his gender and sexuality by scapegoating other people. In that respect, it’s sort of like someone painting a picture of Adolf Hitler dressed as an Hassidic Jew in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Be careful of what you wish for. Look at what they ended up with when various Arab countries had their ‘Spring’ and Egypt especially have regretted their ‘Spring’ which gave them the Muslim Brotherhood.
Yes I know that Russia is not a Muslim country but what is to stop the Russian Orthodox Church from setting up some kind of theocracy in the event of such a power vacuum and what is to prevent the Islamists in the Caucasus from getting a foothold. And the Chechen rebels are worse then Al Qaeda – remember the Belsan School Siege when many young children were massacred.

russian orthodox church has no history of being in power and as such apart from strong political influences has no means to become ruling class like it happened in iran. and i dont think general public is that big on democratic values like human rights. they prefer their russia to be strong and powerfull, so i dont expect any revolutions taking place any time soon

And he’s only 5’7″ (170cm) but Vladimir Putin comes across as larger than life in the media.
Tom Cruise is not that.short. OK, 5’7″ isn’t tall or anything, but Cruise’s height has been a hot topic of conversation and even ridicule. Which is amusing because I don’t recall anyone mentioning anything about Robert Downey Jr. being called a squirt or about Javier Bardem’s stature nor Vladimir Putin having a Napoleon complex. Yet, they too stand 5’7″ (170cm).

I’ll give you that Robert Downey Junior isn’t all that tall at 5’8″, but Javier Bardem isn’t 5’7″. He’s a very respectable 5’11”.

Putin’s problem isn’t his height. It’s his obsession with appearing “manly”. All of his bare-chested photos, his endless photo opportunities participating in “manly man” activities, and now his obsession with LGBT people. To me, that smacks of projection and insecurity.

I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Vladimir was harassed as a child for being “less than masculine”. Bullied children sometimes turn into far worse bullies as adults. I’m not excusing him. AT ALL. But we should at least criticize him for the right reasons.

An artist friend of ours in Manhattan painted a picture of a nude in a rocking chair, that looked much like President Kennedy. It got good publicity for a few days, even in the New York Times, a few days later the Secret Service came to the gallery and took it away. It was never seen again.
Although that was almost 50 years ago, it can happen here.

… and no doubt your message – and the one I’ve been attempting to broadcast for months – will fall on the same deaf ears as did those who warned of the impending humanitarian disaster of WWII Germany. Putin is looking increasingly emasculated and impotent on the world stage … the Syrian situation for example. He WILL seek out scapegoats in an attempt to restore national pride. Persecuting a minority within your own society has always prooved an effective way of galvanising support for a failing dictatorship.

The thing is that this sort of censorship really doesn’t work today with the internet. As it is now, everybody everywhere has seen this painting.
We know about Putin’s sham marriage since the (whisper it) “D.I.V.O.R.C.E” and both Putin and Medvedev have so often been photographed together looking as close as a couple of giggling schoolgirl chums.

Lyrics to A Hymn To Him :
Putin
Why can’t a woman be more like a man?
Men are so pleasant, so easy to please;
Whenever you’re with them, you’re always at ease.
Would you be slighted if I didn’t speak for hours?
Medvedev
Of course not.
Putin
Would you be livid if I had a drink or two?
Medvedev
Nonsense.
Putin
Would you be wounded if I never sent you flowers?
Medvedev
Never.
Putin
Why can’t a woman be like you?

Yes, it’s easy to get support pandering to a popular prejudice and it’s a great diversion while more restrictions are being planned to be put in place while people are looking the other way.
“Normal” Russian citizens, as they increasingly seem to refer to themselves, will be in for a shock when their own freedoms begin to be withdrawn and as you say , by then it will be too late.

By the way, you should definitely read the Wikipedia article on him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirill_I_of_Moscow#Public_controversies . As a Russian citizen who’s been following the events closely, I confirm these stories to be true (except the bit about his ‘wife’, which is a speculation at this point). For me, the most insane episode was Kirill saying that forgiving his neighbor would be ‘inappropriate’. Truly jaw-dropping stuff.

Hmm… that’s strange, Pavlos. ‘Ekho Moskvy’ is a well-known radio station and blog platform. Perhaps there are some third-party adverts that are being flagged as malicious by your security software? Anyway, here’s the direct link to the image, this should be safe: http://www.echo.msk.ru/files/1024708.jpg?1377601627 .

Further proof, as if needed, of Putin’s desperation. When dictatorships fail and the leaders feel emasculated and impotent, they seek out scapegoats and will silence ANY criticism. The similarities between present-day Russia and pre-WWII Germany are VERY scarey. We (and I mean ‘the civilised world’) ignore this mad man’s current actions at our peril …..

Neither looks particularly like the personages they are supposed to, and it’s rather misogynistic when you think about it – the old axiom that a woman can dress in men’s clothes and no one cares, but the minute a man wears something feminine, the world is about to end.

And instant recognition is of fairly high importance when making satirical art.

Putin is one of those men who is quite the male impersonator in his daily life and given that he is one to such an extreme macho degree, he’s so often pictured in a tank or a submarine or on a horse with a gun going hunting, I don’t think it’s misogynistic to imaginatively lampoon Putin getting in touch with his feminine side.

PinkNews covers religion, politics, entertainment, finance, and community news for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community in the UK and worldwide. Founded to produce broadsheet quality journalism for the LGBT community, we cover politics to theology in an intelligent manner.